RIT student and co-founder of Strong Arm Technologies, Inc. Sean Petterson pitches his product at the New York state student business plan competition held at Albany NanoTech on Thursday, April 26, 2012 in Albany, N.Y. The product is a back harness connected to gloves to help lift heavy objects without injury. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union) less

RIT student and co-founder of Strong Arm Technologies, Inc. Sean Petterson pitches his product at the New York state student business plan competition held at Albany NanoTech on Thursday, April 26, 2012 in ... more

Photo: Lori Van Buren

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RIT students and co-founders of Strong Arm Technologies, Inc. Justing Hillery, left, and Sean Petterson demonstrate their product at the New York state student business plan competition held at Albany NanoTech on Thursday, April 26, 2012 in Albany, N.Y. The product is a back harness connected to gloves to help lift heavy objects without injury. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union) less

RIT students and co-founders of Strong Arm Technologies, Inc. Justing Hillery, left, and Sean Petterson demonstrate their product at the New York state student business plan competition held at Albany NanoTech ... more

Photo: Lori Van Buren

Image 3 of 3

Students making a pitch for their futures

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ALBANY — First, they had to get past the elevator pitch.

The very brief sales pitch, so short that it can be delivered within the time it takes to ride an elevator, was used Thursday to reduce the field at the third annual New York State Business Plan Competition.

Judges, including venture capitalists, investment bankers, entrepreneurs and angel investors, whittled the more than 120 teams from more than 25 colleges and universities across the state to just 20 teams. From there, teams made their case for investment to the judges.

The results:

Grand Prize Winner: Rochester Institute of Technology. For the Strong Arm Vest, a form-fitting garment that incorporates a system of load-bearing straps to reduce fatigue and risk potential for employees lifting heavy objects.

The grand prize winner gets $50,000 in cash and $20,000 worth of in-kind services. More than a dozen other prizes, with varying amounts of cash and in-kind services, were also in play. They competed for $150,000 in prizes.

This year's event was by far the largest of the three-year-old competition, said Steve Janack, CNSE vice president for marketing and communications. In addition to CNSE, other schools involved in the competition included UAlbany's School of Business, the Lally School at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, and Syracuse University.

SEFCU was the title sponsor of the event, and the credit union's president and CEO, Michael Castellana, was among the judges.